The train from Munich to Berlin is 6 hours long which means we had only half of Saturday in the city. We spent it by walking around the central area of Berlin where we took in the Brandenburg Gate, a nearby Holocaust Memorial, and the exterior of the Reichstag.
Our hotels in Munich and Frankfurt were within walking distance of the train stations, but this was not the case in Berlin. Technically, I think our hotel was outside the city. But there was a tram that went there, so it wasn’t a big deal. It meant that our hotel was pretty cheap compared to comparable hotels within the city. (And I found a €5 bill on the tram tracks while we waited!) Our room had a kitchenette so we decided to get groceries to make eating cheaper. I’m not sure how groceries are so cheap in Germany, but we bought groceries for that night’s dinner and the following day’s breakfast and lunch for both of us and it only totaled €17. And it was good food too, not ramen noodles.
The hotel even had a sauna, which I was going to take advantage of, but there were naked people in there, sprawling their bits on the benches, and the sanitation implications icked me out. And while I don’t consider myself a prude, I guess it’s the vein of Puritanism in American culture that makes me believe you really should keep your genitals covered in any situation where you could meet a stranger. Oh, Europeans.